Steven Earth
by Kirbilius Clausius
Summary: #GemLivesMatter And if the 'police' of Pink's precious little pets do not believe so, the Diamond Authority will have to press upon Pin...Steven that she has certain genocidal responsibilities to ensure her people's survival. Set after the four Diamonds treated the corruption of gems left on Earth. In need of a beta.
1. Chapter 1

1

Once upon a time, a woman was walking down the street. Why is not known. Perhaps she was exploring the world by experiencing it. Perhaps she was on the way to meet someone. Perhaps she did not have a purpose - and that not having a purpose was a holy thing in her culture.

What is known is what happened next. She came upon a small child standing on the sidewalk. She bent down to talk to the child - what exactly, the details are unclear on. Then, according to an ATM camera and a traffic camera and an onlooker curious about these alleged 'gems', a cop shot the woman from the left side under her ear, twice under her armpit, in the elbow, and the child thus emptying his revolver. Where the child was hit is unclear because even though the woman vanished into thin air leaving a large emerald to drop suddenly to the pavement, the child staggered into traffic and was hit by a car.

The police then assured the officer that shot the two that there was nothing else he could have done, and that they would calm him down, and that they should go over the facts - also caught on the cameras and the by stander's phone's microphone as well as the ATM's microphone. Medical assistance did not arrive for 23 minutes, having been notified by the by-stander (according to him) ten minutes later once he realized the cops were not going to call for an ambulance.

At a press conference three days later, the police assured the public that such an accident was a warranted police involved shooting. They carefully reminded the assembled reporters and television cameras of the woman's skin color, and that it was different and rare. They reminded that the woman had been not so much mentally unstable due to injury but 'corrupted' because she was 'on the battlefield'. The described the body language of the woman as 'threatening' and 'dangerous'. And while they sympathized with all the surviving relatives of the child, there would not be charges brought against the officer who was currently suspended from duty with pay.

2

The child's parents could not afford any lawyer that would take a civil case against the police department. All the local lawyers had declined on the basis of 'hurting their relationship with the people they had to work with'. Fortunately for the couple, they weren't atheists: they attended a church whose congregation donated enough for a private investigator to at least investigate the woman.

A few days of back tracking the gem's path, he found a grove of trees. He also found himself surrounded by women holding various melee weapons. He assured them of three things. The first was that he was no there to harm them. The second was that he was investigating on behalf of the family of the deceased child. And finally, the stone that the 'suspect' had with her when she disappeared had been taken into police custody as evidence.

And would remain in a sealed container until the suspect was caught. To be used as evidence against the suspect in her trial. And then destroyed. In the mean time, it would be periodically removed from the container and pieces of it would be scraped off in order for forensics lab tests to be done.

They told him his biggest clue yet. They could not help this human family. But they would go to someone who might. Pink Diamond.


	2. Chapter 2

1

What appeared to be a tween child lay on the beach playing a ukulele for a girl only slightly taller and older sitting next to him. His notes slowed down when three green women walked past him. It was obvious that they were aware of him. But they appeared to be purposely avoiding interfering with him. They continued on to a ghastly white woman studying the holographic globe that hung in mid air, projected from the gem in her head.

"Pink's Pearl.", they stated in unison. Their arms were crossed in the Diamond Authority's salute for one's higher ups.

Pearl furrowed her brow. "I don't belong to anyone."

"Oh, of course.", one stated. "I mean...sorry. We were on Pink Diamond's side in her war with Rose Quartz and...Well - the strategy she chose to change her colony has made things awkward for everyone. Still, we would seek an audience with Her Clarity. We do still run that by you...right?"

Pearl considered the Emeralds before her. They were explorers, not revolutionaries. In command of ships to find new worlds for the Diamond Authority to expand into. They were mined for their ability to accept new realities, without losing their obedience in the course of those discoveries. Pearl pursed her lips. Then she stood. "Steven?", she called out. "There's some people I would like you to meet."

The two children came running up to Pearl. "Hello!", Steven announced himself enthusiastically. Connie stood a bit behind him, taken aback when the three immediately saluted.

"Your Clarity.", the defacto leader of these Emeralds addressed him formally. "We were fortunate to be given an audience by your Pearl. But I assure you, this is an important topic to us and I hope not a waste of your valuable time."

Steven paused. "I'm sorry. My Pearl?", he asked checking his clothes and pockets.

Pearl let out a sigh. "They mean me."

"Oh yeah...", Steven let out softly. "Not everyone fought for my mom...well, they did - I guess. But not everyone was with Rose Quartz in the beginning of Era 2. But Pearl doesn't belong to anybody. Nobody does. Like you."

An Emerald was about to correct him, saying that they belonged to Pink Diamond. But Pink Diamond just told them that they did not. At the conundrum, she turned to her fellows. One simply shrugged. The vocal one pressed on. "Be that as it may, Your Clarity. We have come to ask your aid in organizing protection. An Emerald and a human were shot /"

"Steven, go inside.", Pearl said.

"Why?", Steven asked.

"I said go inside.", Pearl demanded.

"Aw.", Steven lamented. Connie placed a hand on his shoulder while guiding him back to the again rebuilt house in front of the Rose Quartz rebellion's temple.

"You dared to order a Diamond?", one of the less vocal Emerald's finally piped up.

Pearl held the bridge of her nose as she winced. However, far be it from her to forget protocol.

"I speak on behalf of Pink Diamond.", Pearl stated to force the Emeralds into accepting her with full attention. "You need to accept that Steven is Rose Qu...Pink Diamond reborn. He is much more the human child housing her gem than he is Her Clarity. So while Steven is still the Pink Diamond that sits at the base of the Diamond Authority, you have to accept that he is still learning and needs to be cared for like a child in some instances.

"This means no springing certain subjects on him willy nilly. You were going to leap into talking about a _murder_ without preparing him?"

The more vocal Emerald grew flustered and try to hide behind her salute. "I am sorry, Pink's Pearl. I just/"

Pearl waved her arms in aggravation at the other gem. "And stop with that silly salute. Rose didn't fight for us to be burdened by that."

She sighed. "I take it that this information isn't confidential?"

The three Emeralds shook their heads rapidly.

"Then tell me what happened. Everything.", she instructed.

At the end of their story, Pearl was blinking with a hand over her mouth. "Oh my. I, um. I see why you came.

"Please. Come with me. I'll communicate this to Steven."

2

"So a gem is bubbled by the police?", Steven tried to make sense of what he was told. "And she didn't even do anything wrong?"

Garnet spoke firmly over crossed arms, signalling that she was guarding her words. "The human's police can't bubble anything. When that poor gem reforms, she's going to have a box disrupting her body. Unless she was specifically trained for embedding objects, and can somehow do it by surprise, she's going to be re-poofed. Repeatedly. And who knows how the humans will react to that?"

"So we need to go get her!", Steven announced.

"Yeah!", Amethyst declared. "Sounds like a job for the Crystal Gems!"

A frown appeared across the faces of the Emeralds.

Garnet's arms tightened. "Perhaps. Perhaps not."

"That's what I was afraid of.", Pearl agreed. Connie nodded along.

"What?", Amethyst asked. Steven looked confused.

"What were the missions of the Crystal Gems, Steven? After the war?", Garnet questioned.

"To protect humanity from the corrupted gems, and the alien ones that were threatening the planet.

"Oh.", Steven realized.

Garnet continued. "Then consider how many there were left of us. A maximum of four when Rose Quartz was leading us. A maximum of seven when you faced the Diamond Authority?

"How many missions did we go on in a month? How many gems were bubbled on them?"

"Uh...", Steven tried to remember.

"And how many months are in a single year? Remember, we were doing this for _millenia._ Add in all the gems recovered from the last battlefield. Do you even realize how many gems there are on this planet after your pool party?"

Steven sheepishly shrugged. "A lot?"

"And the humans are a lot more numerous and advanced when we were fighting the war that Rose put us through.", Garnet continued.

Pearl took up the conversation. "What she means, Steven, is that we can't just busting into a police station like we were going through the gem buildings. There'll be consequences. Fallout. Ramifications."

"I think we get it.", Amethyst quieted her.

Garnet looked off into the distance, as if the house' walls were a million miles away. "I forsee a number of ways this goes badly. But I also see that if Steven does nothing, then the Diamond Authority will believe that their subjects are in direct danger from biologicals and Pink Diamond refuses to protect her subjects. Then they will suspend Earth being Pink Diamond's colony. The professed dream of Rose Quartz of preserving biological life, and allowing gems the freedom of non-purpose and evolution that comes with that will be dead. Along with all biological life on the planet."

Connie grabbed Steven by the wrist and shook him. "You can't let that happen."

"So what can I do?", Steven asked.

Garnet pursed her lips and sighed.

Pearl nodded. "Steven, there may be very little that you can do. But Pink Diamond on the other hand..."


End file.
